Demand for the GBP/USD was seen in today’s trading session after strong speculation that the Bank of England could raise interest rates at the beginning of next year after the release of strong U.K. service sector data. This sent the currency pair to fresh five-year highs, the pair’s highest since August 2009.

Markit research group said the U.K. services purchasing managers’ index rose to a four-month high of 58.7 last month, from a reading of 57.6 in March which gave the GBP currency strength over the US dollar. Analysts had expected the index to remain unchanged in April.

Meanwhile in the U.S., data revealed that the country’s trade deficit narrowed to $40.38 billion in March from $41.87 billion in February, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated deficit of $42.30 billion. Analysts had expected the trade deficit to narrow to $40.30 billion in March, and the lackluster data softened the dollar.

Intraday bias in the pair remains on the upside as a fresh cross of 21 and 55EMA’s are seen on the 1hour charts. Also, MACD and RSI Oscillators shows signs of bullish continuation while stochastic indicator signals a retracement is on around the corner before the resumption of the bullish trend. However, the pair was able to find resistance at 1.69948 and a break of 1.69948 resistance could see more rise to 1.70659.